I Teach ~ I Vote

A supporter contacted me to ask that I make some of the dates in this article more clear.  While doing so, I have also added pieces of the video transcripts and made my photos from the 2011 Rally more accessible.

One thing that I cannot add, is YOUR voice – and I hope you will help, by adding  your experiences in the comments.  If you have spent years, trying to communicate these problems to our Board and/or Legislators, please add your voice.  (No full names will be published – Make one up, if you like.)  They like to claim that there is only a “small group” of 22 “disgruntled” teachers, who are trying to stir things up.  What they need to know, is that there are THOUSANDS of teachers, parents, students, and community members, who are begging to be heard.

——————————-

The problems in Knox County Schools didn’t start yesterday, and they aren’t going to end tomorrow. Lots of people want you to only notice the past few months. Legislators, school boards, and district administrators want to make out teachers as spur-of-the-moment rabble-rousers, when the truth is very different. They want to convince the public to give them “time” to make changes, hoping the public will forget that we have been explaining the problems for YEARS – not months.

The Knox County Board of Education has heard from THREE different Knox County Education Association presidents. (Elected by teachers, they serve two-year terms.)  They have been hearing about problems for MORE THAN FOUR YEARS.

The Board of Education, as well as local legislators were sent numerous letters and emails from educators – and were repeatedly told that we needed to “wait and see.”

Legislators very purposefully passed these laws. Boards of Education, at the local and state level, supported them. And superintendents “testified” in front of the legislature, claiming that teachers “embraced” the testing and evaluation systems that were being put into place and asked legislators not to change a thing:

“Certainly, there are some adjustments and tweaks that can be made,” said McIntyre, adding that those can be done without legislative action. “In my humble and respectful opinion, I would ask that the Legislature keep the legislation in place in its current form.“

From:  “Jim McIntyre Defends New Teacher Evaluation System” by Tom Humphrey, Knoxville News Sentinel, November 2, 2011

And, two years later, in 2013, McIntyre continued to testify that the new evaluation system was fabulous:

“But perhaps no other recent change has greater potential to improve the quality of education in our state than the adoption of a new teacher performance evaluation system.“

From: U.S. House of Representatives Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee, Written Testimony as prepared by Dr. Jim McIntyre, Superintendent 2/28/2013

At this same time, teachers were speaking to the Knox County Schools Board of Education.  According to the BOE, they just “didn’t know” that morale was at an all-time low, or that students were undergoing so many tests, or that the evaluation system was seriously flawed and being used punitively, rather than for improvement.  In other words, they lied.

The KCS BOE has been told about these problems since 2010.  KCEA President, Sherry Morgan, spoke every time they met during the 2011-2013 school years. All three KCEA presidents regularly contacted Board members and legislators between 2010 to today – as have numerous other teachers, parents, and community members.

Four years.

Four years of ignored data.

Four years of ignored facts.

Four years of ignoring the professional educators of Knox County and Tennessee.

Four years of supporting the superintendent’s false testimony.

And, after four years of completely ignoring teachers, parents, and students, they ask us to please, just give it some time to “work” before they make changes.

The only people they are kidding are themselves and people who have been asleep for the past four years.

If anyone believes that teachers were just too softspoken to get through to the BOE, or that the BOE just didn’t “get” that there was a problem, here are some reminders in pictures and video from March 5th, 2011:

Tennessee Education Rally – March 5, 2011

Tennessee teachers march to the Capitol, to rally against several anti-public education bills.
March 5, 2011

Kayla Montgomery, KCEA, speaking at 2:15
“When people try to get rid of a bill, ask why that bill was in place. In essence, it’s to protect somebody.”
March 5, 2011

Though this isn’t a bi-partisan speaker, the thing to remember is that this is no longer about one party or the other.  It is about fixing the MESS that has been created.

0:55  – “This is an attack on teachers; this is an attack on firemen; this is an attack on collective bargaining.  Collective bargaining – there are many entities that do collective bargaining – and you can’t forget what collective bargaining did for this country:  Collective bargaining gave us the weekends; collective bargaining gave us safety laws in the workplace; collective bargaining…not to work children like they were grown people.”

1:45 – “These folks hate public education.  They don’t care anything about public education.  They tried to dicimate it with charter schools; they tried to steal the money everywhere they can, they tried to do away with the DOE at the national level.  They do not care about education.  They never have and they never will.”

2:55 – “This is a plot that’s happening all over the country…They are doing it all over the country.”